That Amateur Radio Club in Ventura

Why the title “That Amateur Radio Club in Ventura?” It is because the club has used so many different names so often, sometime even two different ones at the same time. Take a look at the chronology that our old records show.

The Ventura Wireless Association

The first two decades of the 20th Century saw an explosion in amateur radio interest in Ventura County, California. Youngsters in Ventura experimented with radio by assembling the components available from "electric" suppliers located on America's East Coast, including the Electro Importing Company, the world's first radio supply house (1904).

Obtaining the prized elements was not an easy task. It was necessary to depend on the four principal express companies: Adams, Southern, American, and Wells Fargo. Ventura's Wells Fargo & Co. Express office was at 720 E Main Street. It wasn't until 1913 that the Post Office Department introduced Parcel Post, the first major competition for the express companies, and began to provide delivery of the implements prized by the "Hardy Boys" types that formed the beginning of an association that had been formalized in 1909 as the Ventura Wireless Association.

For this turn of the Century generation, the first transmission of a Morse code message through the air was an awe-inspiring, near miracle. Ultimately this new medium, called radio waves, was to end war and dramatically raise the general cultural and educational level, as some visionaries forecasted. In many ways those visions were not too far wrong.

The Ventura Wireless Association, and the estimated 230 other clubs in existence at that time, owed at least a good portion of their origin to the Wireless Association of America began by Hugo Gernsback. Gernsback was also editor and publisher of the periodicals Modern Electrics magazine, Radio Amateur News, and Science and Invention.

In that first decade, four Ventura locations were purveyors of wireless periodicals and books. The primary source of radio wonderment was the Bartlett Brothers Stationery on Main Street, just east of Palm Avenue. C.G. and A.G. Bartlett carried all the current and some back issues of the important wireless publications starting just prior to 1900, and did so well beyond the formation of the Ventura Wireless Association in 1909.

A typical station of the old Coherer days, with one inch spark coil and round ball spark gap

A 'portable' station.

The first construction article appeared in a July, 1899 edition of the magazine American Electrician. Ventura wireless aficionados cleared the shelves in no time as each fellow wanted a copy for his very own. It took several weeks to restock wireless publications as they had to be shipped from the East Coast. The Western Union telegraph office was two blocks east of Bartlett Brothers on Main Street at the northeast corner of Oak Street, and was kept busy with merchants placing orders to suppliers in Kansas City, Missouri and points east. This was, of course, for all supplies, not just wireless books and periodicals.

Dry batteries, with a mechanical interrupter, were used as a power supply. Note the slide wire tuner, potentiometers, and the glass plate transmitting condenser.

There were two telephone companies serving Ventura City. There was the Ventura Home Telephone & Telegraph Co. with an office at 733-1/2 E. Main Street. that had a majority of the business in 1909, however an upstart company called Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. began competing from their office at 426 Oak Street. Telephone service was strictly local with some merchants having the same number ringing at their homes as well the business location. In a world without affordable long distance telephones, telegraph was king. In addition to Western Union there was also an office for the Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. at 741 E. Main Street.

Telegrams reached the height of their popularity later in the 1920s and 1930s before slowly falling into a long slow decline that ended with Western Union sending a final telegram: "Effective January 27, 2006 Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services..." With these words Western Union announced the death of the telegram, the original form of electronic communication that dates back 150 years to May 24,1844.

The apparatus was mostly homemade, the "Helix" in particular, which was suspended from the ceiling by a string to insure good insulation.

Those early days of the club were highly disorganized, with informal meetings among members, sometimes on a daily basis. The club affiliated with the Wireless Association of America that grew rapidly to as many as 10,000 members. As was quite common in the early days of amateur radio, a member did not also represent an active transmitter.

Note the homemade loose coupler, which was a prized possession at that time.

The number of transmitters in Ventura in 1909 could be counted on one hand, while the number of local wireless hobbyists was legion in comparison. Clubs and stations were popping up all over the nation. There were ten more California listings for transmitting stations in San Jose, San Francisco, Susanville, Riverside, Vacaville, Covina, Capitola and Kentfield with multiple transmitting stations in Los Angeles.

By 1912 there were crystal detectors, microphone detectors, and even electrolytic detectors. Boys were busily engaged in breaking up chunks of rock in an attempt to find a good piece of carborundum, copper pyrites, or zincite, or groveling on hands and knees diligently searching the floor for the missing piece of Wollaston wire which was always diminutive and hard to find.

This shows a considerable advance in design over the old days. We now have loose-coupled pancake tuning inductances and rotary spark gaps.

With the adoption of the Wireless Act by Congress in 1913, however, the usefulness of the Wireless Association of America had come to an end, and thus matters rested.

The Boy Scouts of America vaguely recognized early radio in 1910 by including the interest as part of its "Electrician" merit badge program. The following year the name of the merit badge was changed to "Electricity" and remained as such until 1919 when "Wireless" was recognized. It was 1923 when a "Radio" merit badge was finally adopted to cover the rapidly growing interest in wireless communications, mainly broadcasting, by the general public. The Radio merit badge remains today; however, most of the requirement would not be recognized by the technology savvy young people of today. The badges required knowledge is mostly a last century orientation.

Just prior to World War I the American Radio Relay League began on the East Coast. It wasn’t until 1919 that the League accepted the affiliation of local radio clubs. The cautious local Ventura club waited almost 20 years before applying. Prior to that time the club had been renamed the Ventura Shortwave Club, among others, and before affiliation it was the Ventura County Radio Club.

During World War I the uses to which the military put radio made governments more appreciative of its value, thereby spurring development. Technological breakthroughs, too, were achieved by servicemen. For example, while serving in the U.S. Army's Signal Corps, Edwin H. Armstrong developed the super heterodyne receiver that made it possible to replace earphones with a loudspeaker. Obviously, this was a major advancement.

Returning doughboys added numbers to the earliest Venturans experimenting with amateur radio transmitting equipment. Nationwide there were about 6,000 amateurs. By 1917, code speed requirements were increased from 5 to 10 wpm. It was also during 1917 when the first wireless publication was printed on the West Coast. The Pacific Wireless News Volume 1 Number 1 was published January, 1917 and continued publishing for a short time under that name and was considered apredecessor to the magazine Radio that was published in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Amateur radio had been shut down during WWI and the Navy had even issued orders against the use of receivers as well. Amateurs got back on the air in October and November of 1919. The first issue of Radio Amateur News was published by Hugo Gernsback the same year.

In Congress the Alexander Bill proposed to give the government - specifically the Navy Dept - control of all transmitting, and to leave amateurs out in the cold. There are articles about this in the Jan, Feb, and Mar, 1919, Electrical Experimentor. Gernsback claimed to have killed the Bill and the ARRL, in their 1936 "Radio Amateur's Handbook," claimed that Hiram Percy Maxim himself quashed it with a single-handed job of personal lobbying in Washington. Perhaps they both did, but it is worthy of note that the Alexander Wireless Bill, as amended, when signed by President Taft (1913), thereby becoming law, contained almost word for word Gernsback's historical recommendation in his editorial in the February, 1912 issue Modern Electrics.

Woodrow Wilson became the first President to speak over radio in 1919, when he broadcast a speech to American Troops in Europe.

King Spark's last stand came in 1919/1920, with the success of CW in the war and the availability of tubes, spark was doomed. Some amateurs experimented with broadcasting, including 8XK (Later licensed as KDKA). The number of hams licensed was 5,719.

"Amateur Police Radio" became popular in 1920. Amateurs operated as an inter-system police communications service to relay broadcasts of crimes and stolen vehicles.

In 1920 the National Amateur Wireless Association became active. Its main success was the broadcast of the Dempsey/Carpenter fight. Many amateurs helped in this broadcast, from acting as relay stations to setting up receivers and loudspeakers in public places.

During 1921 through1922 the transatlantic tests were at last a success. Amateurs found that frequencies below 200 meters (above 1500 kc/s) worked the best. Amateur broadcasting ("Citizen Radio") was popular with up to 1,200 amateurs, but in 1922 it was prohibited when the first broadcast regulations were issued.

The amateur census in 1923 indicated there were 14,000 hams. Shortwave development continued. The MacMillian Arctic Expedition became the first to carry two-way radio, an amateur 200 meter station. Over the next 10 years dozens of Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, including those of Commander Byrd, used amateur radio as their primary communications.

Amateurs were given new bands at 80, 40, 20, and 5 meters in 1924. Spark was prohibited on these new bands. The broadcast band was expanded. The ARRL adopted “Esperanto” as the international auxiliary language

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) formed in 1925. Amateurs were at last successful in working around the world on shortwave!

In 1926, crystal control of transmitters was developed. And a Federal Court declared the Radio Act of 1912 to be un-enforceable regarding broadcasting and the shortwave bands. The "Summer of Anarchy" commenced in the broadcast world, but amateurs stayed within their bands.

Ventura County's first radio broadcast station began operation in early 1926. Carl F. Newcomb, local radio man and proprietor of Carl's Radio Den at 207 5th Street in Oxnard, operated licensed commercial broadcast station KFYF on 1260kc/s (kilocycles per second) with a power of 25 watts. The station slogan was "The Baby Super Station." and operated from 5 to 6 p.m. with crop reports, news and music. After supper the station returned to the air at 8 PM with music until 11 p.m. except on Friday and Saturday. KFYF did not operate on Thursday and Sunday.

KFYF signed off for the last time on June 15, 1927 following a farewell program and after operating for one and a half years. Newcomb stated that Oxnard did not deserve the station and he had not received the support necessary to continue operation.

The Radio Act of 1927 created the Federal Radio Commission. In it, the word "amateur" was used for the first time in a Federal statute. The International Radiotelegraph Conference was held in Washington. Seventy nations sent representatives. Amateurs, represented by the ARRL and the IARU, fought overwhelming odds, and were allowed to retain the 160, 80, 40, 20 and 5 meter bands, and to gain the 10 meter band, but lost 37.5 percent of their overall frequencies. International call sign prefixes were assigned, and on October 1, 1928, the W and K prefixes were assigned to American amateurs. The prefix K was not assigned to hams in the continental 48 states until much later, in 1953.

Despite the Great Depression, amateur radio enjoyed its greatest growth in the years from 1929 through 1936, expanding from 16,829 to 46,850. Low cost components made it possible to build a quality station for as little as $50! VHF phone operation became popular with the super-regenerative receiver (developed by Armstrong) and the modulated oscillator. Phone operation began to appear on some HF bands. But CW and crystal control continued to be the number one choice for most hams.

In March 1933, the first two-way AM mobile radio was installed in a patrol car of the Bayonne, New Jersey Police Department. The system was designed by Lieutenant Vincent J. Doyle of the Bayonne Police and radio engineer Frank Gunther. Through the use of a combined transmitter and receiver in the patrol car, the two-way system allowed communication between patrol cars and with the police station.

The Bayonne system was developed less than five years after the deployment of the one-way AM mobile-radio system by the Detroit Police Department. On April 7, 1928, the Detroit Police commenced regular one-way radio communication with its patrol cars, using a system developed by Patrolman Kenneth Cox and Robert L. Batts, an engineering student. This system proved the practicality of land-mobile radio for police work and led to its adoption throughout the county.

Detroit Police radio dispatch equipment in 1928.

Ventura City Police "Two-Way" Radio

Sometime during the mid-thirties, a young man named Roy Wallace (W6ERU) was working for Chief Neal. Wallace developed and installed the first two-way radio system for the Department. Radio station KACN was the first police two-way radio station in Ventura County. Prior to this time, if a police officer were needed people were required to call the telephone operator. She then responded by turning on the red lights located at various street corners in the city. There were approximately four of them throughout the city. When an officer spotted a light on, he would call the telephone operator from a police phone box and receive the information needed to respond to the call. At that time, the Police Department was located in the fire station at the northeast comer of California and Santa Clara streets.

Radio station KACN was a Medium-Frequency police band two-way station (just above the broadcast band of the day) and the police could call Roswell, New Mexico, Fresno, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara Police Department and Sheriffs Office, and the L. A. County Sub-Station at Malibu. The police two-way radio system was also used for receiving and dispatching calls for the Ventura County Sheriffs Office. Later, in the 40's, the Ventura police radio took all California Highway Patrol calls from midnight to seven in the morning. KIUF, the CHP transmitting station in Ventura was on 1682 kc/s.

This is the 1936 Galvin/Motorola "Police Cruiser" mobile radio, a redesigned car radio preset to KACN's 2414 kc/s frequency. A separate transmitter set was needed when two-way radios were introduced in 1938. The Federal Radio Commission (predecessor of today's Federal Communications Commission - FCC) assigned only eight radio frequencies for all police departments nationwide, and required that all departments in a geographic area share the same frequency

The Madrid International Radiotelegraph Conference took place in 1932, with no international regulation changes affecting Amateur Radio. There were, however, big changes within Ventura County and the Ventura Wireless Association.

The Ventura Short Wave Club

A reorganizational meeting creating the Ventura Short Wave Club was held at the El Jardin Patio, 453 E. Main St. in Ventura on October 21, 1932. The Ventura Wireless Association had been active for the 23 years preceding this event, more interpersonal than public in many cases, however. Elliot “Jack” Strobel (W6CEV) was elected president. Originally licensed in 1929, Jack and his wife Beulah lived at 238 Leighton Dr., Ventura. At that time he was employed as a radio serviceman by White and Faulkerson, who were dealers in automobile tires and batteries, and radios, located at 73-77 S. California St. He became well known in the community in later years as the proprietor of a radio and television shop at 1320 E. Main St. His son-in-law Bill Kelly (W6DYU) worked with him in that business. Jack Strobel’s home was in Ventura at 2656 Channel Dr. when he died in August, 1987.

The Poinsettia Radio Club of Ventura County

Ventura County's radio club was three years into its 1932 revision as "The Ventura Short Wave Club" when in 1935, the Ventura Chamber of Commerce asked the members to change the club name to reflect the city slogan of the time, "Ventura, California, the Poinsettia City-by-the-Sea." For the name change the Chamber offered free personalized QSL cards for all club members, complete with slogan and poinsettia. Hams being what they are, the club name soon became “The Poinsettia Radio Club of Ventura County.”

They met twice a month, on the first and third Fridays, in the basement of the Southern Counties Gas Company office at 39 North California St. The Gas Company later moved its office to Santa Clara Street where it remained until the mid ‘80s. The California Street address is now the location of a law firm.

The Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California

They continued meeting at the Gas Company office through at least 1938. The club applied for ARRL affiliation, which was approved by the ARRL executive committee on March 5, 1938. By that time the club had dropped Poinsettia from the name – apparently the free QSL cards had stopped – and was then known as “The Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California.” The officers were Lloyd Stearns (W6HHG), 119 S. Anacapa St., Ventura, president; E.R Conly (W6NXJ), 355 Dalton St., Ventura, vice president; and H. J. Bovee (W6LDM), secretary. The club mailing address was 30 South Santa Cruz St., Ventura, the secretary’s home address. Annual club dues were $3 and there were 33 members. By then meetings were held only on the first Friday of each month.

One of the last surviving club members from that time was Leland Stiles (W6KSZ), who had moved to Ojai, California prior to his death. Much of the information for this history are firsthand recollections of Stiles and James. F. Dowers (W6QPU) of Ventura. Ed Hubanks (W6MWA) also of Ventura, and J.B. Penney (W6IGH), who had moved to Oxnard prior to his death, also contributed important corroborating information. Dowers and Hubanks are still with us as of this writing (2006).

During World War II most of the club members were in the military, so little happened with the club for the duration of the war. After V-J day the club came to life again, with returning military radio operators becoming a new crop of radio amateurs to join those who had been hams before the war.

The Ventura club met at a variety of locations after the war. The venues included the Ventura Police Department, the Community Center on the 1300 block of East Main Street at Cemetery Park, Mound School auditorium and at the home of Bob Lunbeack (W6IDU) on Rancho Drive, in Ventura. Often, before and after the war, the Ventura Radio Club held joint meetings with the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club. Records show, for instance, that on one occasion in 1948, the founders of Taylor Tubes presented a program on “Super Modulation” to both groups at the Mound School auditorium at 5200 Telegraph Rd, just east of Ventura city.

The Ventura County Amateur Radio Club of Oxnard

Sometime after the war a new amateur radio club formed in Oxnard and it began a period of growth. (There is no available documentation showing that the Oxnard club existed prior to WWII.) The earliest historical records indicate that the club was in existence in 1955 and was incorporated in November 3, 1958.

The signatures on the paperwork for the Ventura County Amateur Radio Club of Oxnard included Messrs. Leslie Gay (K6OFO), 160 E. James St., Oxnard; Fred Inniss (K6QBF), 516 N. H St., Oxnard; Harold Stoner (K6BUD), 451 W. Guava St., Oxnard; and Miss Leona Thomas (call sign unavailable), 160 E. McMillen Ave., Oxnard.

When contacted, these early members of the Oxnard club could give little information about its founding. The impression was that it was a post war spinoff of the Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura. Practically all of the earliest members had call signs issued in 1953 or later: K6SHA, K6VBC, K6ARK, K6HAV, K6UQT and K6VMN, among others.

Les Gay, a 1954 member of the Santa Barbara Radio Club, moved to Oxnard in 1956 and he joined the “Oxnard Radio Club,” as he calls it. He served as editor of the club newsletter and was at one time club president. Les moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and now lives in Miami, Florida, holding the call sign AF4DE. He is at present (in 2002) the editor of the Homestead ARC newsletter.

Harold Stoner (K6BUD) now lives in Mesa, Arizona and will be 95 years old this year (2002). Harold relates how the VCARC – Oxnard would meet at 8 p.m. on the second Friday of each month at the Amateur Radio Room of the Seabee Center through at least 1959. The Seabee Center is now part of Naval Base Ventura County.

The availability of cheap housing near the military bases in the Oxnard/Port Hueneme area attracted the newly-discharged military radiomen who became hams. Prior to this time the second largest city in Ventura County was the City of Santa Paula but that changed rapidly during the ‘50s.

The Ventura Radio Club, and The Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California

The Oxnard club south of the Santa Clara River adopted the name “Ventura County Amateur Radio Club,” causing confusion with the original “Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California.” Newsletters from that era show that at that time the older club was unofficially called “The Ventura Radio Club” until as late as 1955. Officers were Sheldon Pettibone (W6NTF), 470 Mariposa Dr., Ventura, president; Bill Farwell (W6QIW), 96 Grapevine St., Oak View (a Ventura suburb), vice president; Milt Baker, 500 Emma St., Ventura, treasurer and Diane Smithem, 1555 Santa Barbara St., Ventura, secretary. Lloyd Stearns (W6HHG), 3676 Mound Ave., Ventura, Jim Dowers (W6QPU), 1318 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura and Ed Hubanks (W6MWA), 1170 Meta St., Ventura, among others, were continuing members.

Sometime during the mid-fifties the club obtained its amateur club station license WA6BMH, with the trustee being J.B. Penney (W6IGH), 260 Francis St., Ventura. The club station was licensed at 880 E. Santa Clara St., the location of the Ventura Chapter of the American National Red Cross. One of the station transmitters was a BC-610, a high power military surplus transmitter that severely interfered with the weak television signals from Los Angeles, thereby limiting use of the club station during prime viewing hours. (The WA6BMH call sign was traded for the silent key call sign of an earlier member and officer Elliot "Jack" Strobel (W6CEV). The change became official in September, 2003.)

(As a tribute to the popularity of the Ventura County club name, another club in the county, the Ventura County Amateur Radio Society was established in October of 1997. This newest club has been growing, and in just 5 years has surpassed the club founded in the 1950s, the Ventura County Amateur Radio Club (Oxnard), in membership and activities. This new club has, in the past two years been operating Field Day at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library overlooking Simi Valley, with outstanding success in promoting amateur radio to the public. Their regular membership meetings are held in a Camarillo conference room provided by the management of a local television station (2002). DLM)

The Poinsettia Radio Club

In August of 1956 the board of directors changed the name of the club back to the 1936 short form name, “Poinsettia Radio Club.” At that time, for some unknown reason, they seemed to think they had to re-apply for affiliation with the ARRL, even though the club had received ARRL affiliation earlier under then-President Lloyd Stearns (W6HHG) in 1938. However, nothing more happened regarding reaffiliation until 1974.

The Poinsettia Amateur Radio Club

So it was that ARRL (re-)affiliation was applied for and received by the “Poinsettia Amateur Radio Club” (another name change, with the word “amateur” added) on May 31, 1974. Bob Richards (W6MHK), 473 W. Ramona St. was president and Charlie Ellis (W6PMN), 1339 Platte Ave. was secretary during this period.

In a recent telephone interview (March, 2002) regarding the 1974 application for re-affiliation Charlie Ellis (W6PNM) said, “In 1974 I was the club secretary. I have always been active in ARRL affairs and felt the club should be affiliated. I – and apparently also everyone else – didn't know the club was already affiliated under one of the several variations of the club's name 36 years earlier, so I pushed for ARRL affiliation again! And we got it, again!” Charlie Ellis who lived in Kingman, Arizona, died in 2006.

The foregoing is a good example of one generation in any ham club not communicating with the next as the clubs go through periods of feast and famine regarding membership and activity.

Much of the above information comes from firsthand recollections of Leland Stiles (W6KSZ) of Ojai, now deceased, and James F. Dowers (W6QPU) of Ventura. Ed Hubanks (W6MWA), Ventura and J.B. Penney (W6IGH), of Oxnard, now deceased, also contributed important corroborating memories from those early times. Special thanks also to the ARRL Club Correspondent Margie Bourgoing (KB1DCO) at ARRL the National Association for Amateur Radio headquarters in Newington, Connecticut for copies of the old documents used to complete this history.

Names and dates

• 1909 to 1932: Ventura Wireless Association
• 1932 to 1935: Ventura Short Wave Club
• 1935 to 1938: Poinsettia Radio Club of Ventura County
• 1938 to 1955: Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California
• 1955 to 1956: Ventura Radio Club – and Ventura County Radio Club – Ventura, California
• 1956 to 1974: Poinsettia Radio Club
• 1974 through 2005: Poinsettia Amateur Radio Club
• 2005 to the present: Ventura Radio Club, Inc.

If any reader of this short history has any additional documentation or personal memory to add, he is certainly invited to contribute. We are looking for additional QSL cards, meeting minutes or photographs about the beginnings of amateur radio in Ventura County. Perhaps this time, by using the art of person-to-person communication and the magic of the Internet, we can carry this history safely into the future.

The Ventura Radio Club, Inc.

The Ventura Radio Club was resurrected out of the misdirection and eventual disbanding of the Poinsettia Amateur Radio Club, which ceased to exist at the end of 2005. The Ventura Radio Club is organized as a State of California public benefit corporation and as a 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization. Donations to the club can be tax deductible. The club station call sign is W6VRC which also is the domain name selected for the club Web site

A club with few face-to-face meetings, but where almost all activities are conducted in cyberspace. All persons with a sincere interest in amateur radio are automatically "members" of the club and a de facto part of the club. Those persons can register their membership online and then be eligible for all membership benefits. Those many benefits are detailed on the Web site.

One of the most interesting benefits is there is no fee for membership. That's right, there are no dues. The club operates on minimal expenses and is funded by grants and donations. The Board of Directors communicate using an e-mail reflector and e-mail for club business. Meeting of the Board are conducted using a teleconferencing site that members may join to observe the boards action. The Ventura Radio Club is not an all cyber space club, but pretty close.

Electronic mail, chat rooms, and other Internet communication tools allow for club interaction on an almost daily basis. This daily interaction can result in the type of relationships and information exchange that one seeks when attending a club meeting. With Special Interest Groups (SIG) such a EME or ATV, there may not be enough local interest to form a club. Cyber space can break down the geographic barriers and allow the group to reach enough critical mass in terms of numbers to become an effective group within the Ventura Radio Club organization.